


Knight-Mistress

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-18
Updated: 2007-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1635536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Had anyone told Keladry of Mindelan that she would be back in Chorus so soon to look for a squire, she would not have believed them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knight-Mistress

**Author's Note:**

> Lots of thanks to Khana for her lovely beta!  <3   
> (And thank you, distorted_tact, for requesting this: It was my first time writing for this fandom and I ended up enjoying it a lot. I hope you like your story.)
> 
> Written for distorted_tact

 

 

Had anyone told Keladry of Mindelan that she would be back in Chorus so soon to look for a squire, she would not have believed them. It was during the first winter in New Hope that she had made her decision and planned for her journey to the capital.  
"I really shouldn't leave again so soon," she had told the town's headwoman, but Fanche had only said that Kel had done a good job raising her people to look out for themselves.  
"See how well they handle the winter, even with the storms what've come early this year. Don't think we're holding you back."  
Kel had smiled sheepishly and felt younger than she had in ages after the woman's speech, but the prospect of seeing the castle and her friends there again had made the decision easier.

Tobe had insisted on accompanying her, but he rode next to her in an unusual silence; only after several days of riding through softly-falling snow had he finally gathered the courage to tell her what was on his mind.

"You're not sending me away, are you?"   
Kel looked at him in surprise. He hadn't worried about anything like that all winter and he'd acted as comfortable around her most of the time as he did around Peachblossom. Before she could start to ask herself what had prompted his worries, he continued: "Because you're taking a squire an' all. You can't send me away, you know? It's in my bond, you said so yourself. I have three more years and you can't forget me jus' 'cause you find someone else in the palace. You can't."  
He gasped for air and looked like he'd continue any second, but Peachblossom shook his head and splattered some of the snow from his mane onto the boy. That silenced him for a moment as he was busy brushing the snow off his face and cloak.

"Now look, even Peachblossom thinks you're silly," she told him, patting the big gelding's neck thankfully. Inwardly she chided herself for not thinking this through more carefully; of course the boy would be worried. It reminded her of the afternoon they met; back then he also couldn't believe that she really wanted him to stay. It had probably been foolish to think that he would get over that so soon.  
"I'm not trying to find a squire to replace you," she assured him, "but the realm needs any squire - any knight - who knows more about the world outside the palace, and places like New Hope." ("You're a good one, Lady Knight," Fanche had said and added: "More like you an' this'll be a better place for sure." Kel was glad for the woman's praise and encouragement, and told herself that this was the sole reason for her journey south. It was not as if she was only looking for a squire to proof that she could find one, after all. If that was part of her reason, she knew better than to say it out loud even when she was alone.)

"So you'll still let me look after Peachblossom an' all?"  
"I'd be sorry for any squire I'd leave all alone with him," she said jokingly and that made the boy laugh.  
"Sounds like something Neal says."  
After that they shared stories from their journey with Neal earlier that winter and of the various shortcuts that he had tried to convince them to take to get home - and to Yukimi - faster. Tobe seemed far less gloomy that evening and admitted that he was curious to see the palace (any just maybe also the boy that Kel would pick as her quire) the day after that.

*

Jaen of Macayhill did his best to look at everything but her when he entered the room Kel had requested for herself and Tobe in the palace barely two weeks ago. He seemed more than a little nervous, if his fidgeting with the sleeves of his uniform was any indication, but when he finally spoke, his voice was steady.   
"Good evening, Lady Keladry. You requested my presence?"  
He bowed. The boy was nothing if not polite; Kel was careful not to let her relief show on her face. Word travelled fast in the palace, of course, and it had come as no surprise to her that within a day of her arrival, everyone seemed to know about her and had guessed the main reason for her visit. She had even overheard some of the older pages muttering among themselves about the woman knight who came to pick one of them, and they didn't seem too happy about the prospect.   
Well, they had better get used to it, Kel had thought then and she still thought it now that Jaen waited for her answer.

"Please, come in," she said in the same polite tone and smiled to take some of the formality out of her voice. "I suppose there is no reason not to be straightforward, since everyone seems to know about it already anyway," she continued, remembering how easy the question had sounded when Raoul had asked her four years ago. It didn't feel easy now.   
"Would you like to be my squire?"

She wouldn't take a boy with her back to New Hope who jumped at the idea of a woman as his knight master, of course, but she didn't expect Jaen to do that, not when she thought about it rationally.   
Lalasa and her friends kept their ears and eyes open and after Kel had met her friend again, she had a pretty good idea already which boys still scowled at her and what she was, and which hadn't joined them in voicing their murmured conversations in the hallways and studies. Jaen, of course, was one of the latter. She had observed the squires that hadn't been picked by other knights already in the training yards, and even asked the teachers about some of them. All things considered, she was as prepared for this as she was ever going to be, but that didn't mean she wasn't nervous. She trusted her judgment of people these days, but while Jaen's abilities where easy to judge - he was best at josting and fighting from horseback, Tobe would surely like that - she wished that she could be surer of his reaction to her request.

"I'd hoped you'd ask," the boy said, beaming, and it probably was, once again, only her Yamani training that kept her surprise from showing.   
"I'm glad to hear that," she said and actually allowed herself a small sigh of relief. The boy grinned amiably.  
"My mother says we had a Lady Knight in the family, some two hundred years ago. I've always wanted to meet a knight like her."

Kel returned his smile, and it wouldn't be long after that that she figured out he was just the kind of squire she had always wanted to meet.

 

 

 


End file.
